NCNG OCS students learn leadership by studying historical battles

The tradition of the Staff Ride dates back to the early 1900s when Maj. Eben Swift, the assistant commandant of the General Service and Staff School Fort Leavenworth, Kansas would take students to visit Civil War battlefields.

Today, units across the Army, like the North Carolina National Guard’s 139th Regional Training Institute, still conduct Staff Rides as a way to enhance professional military education and training.